


will i make it out alive?

by WishingTree



Category: Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Genre: .....listen, F/F, i have so many goddamn questions, spoilers up to episode 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: “Please don’t believe everything they tell you,” Scylla begs desperately, unable to stand the thought of them turning Raelle against her. Some of it will surely be the truth, because it’s obvious they know who she is and at least some of what she’s done, but still… Scylla can’t ask anything more of her than that.Please don’t believeeverythingthey tell you.
Relationships: Raelle Collar/Scylla Ramshorn
Comments: 7
Kudos: 151





	will i make it out alive?

**Author's Note:**

> I am _filled_ with confusion after that last episode and also a whole lot of pain
> 
> Title from the song of the same name by Tommee Profitt;

Scylla has lost track of how long she’s been tied to this chair when the door bangs open once more, the sound loud and jarring in the otherwise empty room. She stiffens, trying to brace herself for whatever they’re throwing at her next, but to all appearances they seem to ignore her completely. All they do is drag an unconscious body inside and then drop the person unceremoniously onto the floor before leaving again, and the door slams shut to leave only a horribly echoing silence.

Scylla swallows roughly, not relaxing in the slightest, but when nothing else happens she turns her gaze to the person, squinting through the darkness. It’s hard to make out any features except for a regulation t–shirt and pale legs, but there’s really only person the military could hope to use against her, and she freezes when she realizes it.

Her heart just about stops when she sees it’s Raelle, and it doesn’t start properly again until she notes that her chest is still moving, that she’s breathing slowly, still alive.

“…Raelle,” she tries, clearing her throat a couple of times and urgently repeating, “Raelle.” The chains around her wrists clink as she moves, straining against them but knowing that no matter how hard she tries she won’t be able to reach the girl on the floor. “Raelle…” 

It’s all she can do, repeat her name and try to keep her desperation under control until she wakes up. Why did they bring her, why is she here? Just to torture Scylla? That’s a horrifying thought, for several reasons.

“Raelle?” 

It takes a few more minutes before Raelle finally stirs, groggily pushing herself up from the floor, and Scylla wants so badly to be able to hold her again, to smooth the hair away from her face and make sure she’s okay.

“Raelle?” Scylla says one more time, and as soon as Raelle’s eyes manage to focus enough to meet hers, Scylla knows this is real. Knows that it’s actually her. This isn’t an induced delusion, or a glamour, or any other sort of magical hallucination. This is _Raelle_.

It’s Raelle, and she stares.

“This can’t be real,” Raelle breathes out unsteadily, shaking her head without breaking eye contact, “You’re dead.” 

It’s not surprising that’s what they’d led her to believe, and Scylla strains forward again desperately. “It’s me, it’s really me,” she tries to reassure her, barely able to stop herself from completely breaking down right there. Raelle moves forward as if unaware of the motions, stopping in front of her and reaching trembling hands out to cup her face. It’s the first touch Scylla’s felt in what must be weeks that isn’t painfully controlling or meant to harm, and another part of her resolve splinters and cracks immediately.

“Oh my god, oh my god – ” Raelle gets out, and then she’s kissing her, but she’s also crying.

Scylla’s pretty sure she’s crying too.

Her hands come to rest on Raelle’s elbows, still weighed down by the chains, and she knows she has to talk to Raelle before their time is up, knows she has to make sure she listens, but how could she possibly push her away?

“Did they hurt you, did they hurt you?” Raelle gets out tearily, her hands sliding into her hair and brushing against the collar before drawing back and hovering them in the air.

Scylla can see the way they’re trembling, can feel the ways _she’s_ trembling, and when Raelle’s devastated gaze shifts to the collar she’d undoubtedly felt around her neck before dropping to the chains around her wrists, Scylla tries to grab her attention back, ignoring her question.

“They’re going to tell you horrible things about me, all of them,” she says as steadily as she can, trying to take Raelle’s hands in her own shaking ones, but Raelle won’t stay still and moves them back to her face almost immediately. Her eyes are filled with tears, streaks painted down her face, and Scylla is seized with something she can’t name, something made of misery and fear.

“Please don’t believe everything they tell you,” she begs desperately, unable to stand the thought of them turning Raelle against her. Some of it will surely be the truth, because it’s obvious they know who she is and at least some of what she’s done, but still… Scylla can’t ask anything more of her than that.

 _Please don’t believe_ everything _they tell you._

“Scyl, why would they do this to you?” Raelle asks unsteadily, reaching for her again, and Scylla has to stop her when her hands go for the collar. 

“Because they want something I can’t give them,” Scylla forces out, knowing they don’t have time for her to explain, knowing that she can’t even _hope_ to explain.

“I don’t understand,” Raelle says brokenly, finally settling back on her heels, and she’s looking at Scylla with such an expression of agony that Scylla would burn down the world to erase it. 

“This is all you need to know,” Scylla chokes, feeling her extremely tenuous hold on her composure slipping, “I love you, Raelle, and I would never do… _anything_ to hurt you, please believe me.” 

There’s a rushing in her ears that doesn’t have anything to do with the torture they’ve been putting her through, and still Raelle nods tearfully.

“I believe you. I believe you. I love you – ” her words are cut off by a sob, but she puts her hand back on the side of Scylla’s face, surging forward to kiss her again. “I love you.” 

Distantly, Scylla is aware of the door opening. That’s probably bad.

“I love you, and I’m so sorry I didn’t say it sooner,” Raelle wavers, going up on her knees to press a kiss to her forehead, and if Scylla’s heart wasn’t broken before, it certainly is now.

“Shh,” Scylla tries to soothe her, knowing on some level that it’s a completely useless effort but instinct still driving her to try. They’re both crying, and when Raelle is suddenly ripped away from her she starts shouting, chained down and unable to follow.

Raelle is yelling something too, fighting against whoever has her, but then she abruptly goes limp and silent in their hold, chin dropping against her chest and hair hanging down to hide her face. 

Scylla _screams_.

Anacostia comes back in as they drag Raelle’s unconscious body out, and Scylla keeps screaming uselessly. She no longer has the capacity to resist when the older witch goes digging through her mind, dredging up memories, but Scylla doesn’t care about any of that.

Not anymore.

She’s still screaming, cheeks wet with tears, and she knows, she _knows_ , that this is probably it. Raelle won’t want anything to do with her once she learns the truth, because Raelle is brave and strong and _good_ , but Raelle is also all that she has left.

Given the way the military had apparently covered up her disappearance, her own treatment at their hands isn’t much of a surprise. However, it is a shock that they’d do this to _Raelle_ , who is completely innocent. If they’re willing to use her like that, with no regard for her or her wellbeing, then… 

Raelle isn’t safe with them, not really. 

And then Scylla squeezes her eyes shut, because she certainly isn’t safe with the Spree either. She doesn’t know what they want Raelle for, had never been told, but it can’t be for anything good. Her decision on that had been made at the wedding, before their last moments together, and the time since then has only strengthened that belief.

Unfortunately, her current situation might be the literal worst one possible in terms of her being able to help Raelle. She’s well aware that the Spree operatives in her area have probably been given an order to kill her on sight, and she certainly doesn’t have any standing left with the military anymore. She’s presumed dead, chained and collared and powerless in more ways than one, and… she’s all alone.

Of course, she’s been alone for a while now, but it’s only recently that she’s started seeing that maybe it isn’t for the better. Maybe the military did have something to their whole creed that witches were stronger in units, that they were stronger together.

She doesn’t see a way out of this, doesn’t see how she can make it out alive, but the strange thing is, that hadn’t mattered before. She had assumed that she would die for this fight, had known from the moment her parents were killed and the Spree found her that this would require sacrifice, and she’d been more than willing to give up everything for it.

But that was before _everything_ became synonymous with Raelle.

Lifting her head, Scylla stares unseeingly at the dark walls around her. She doesn’t know even a fraction of what’s really going on, doesn’t know what it is about Raelle or her power that is so important to the Spree and the military both, but she does know that neither of them care about Raelle beyond it.

Neither of them care about Raelle herself, but Scylla does. She’d been willing to give it all up before, but now…

Maybe not.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright friends I am _really_ hoping this show somehow pulls off a good Scylla redemption arc, because.................,, _please_


End file.
